3 days in L.A.: Hollywood & the beach

3 days in L.A. – Express discovery!

Arriving in L.A.: is this home?

The moment our feet touched Los Angeles ground, we both had this feeling of not knowing what to expect but being extremely excited at the same time. Alice immediately – and unexplainably – started feeling home, and Simone had the impulse of singing a 90’s hit song from Bran Van 3000 « Drinking in L.A. ». We immediately knew our 3 days in L.A. were going to be fantastic!

Unfortunately, because both of our initial lack of interest for the city and the fact that accommodation was so expensive, we only had 3 days in L.A. before flying back to Paris. We tried to make the most out of it, even though Simone got his usual « end of vacation » flu-like illness…

Feeling great DURING 3 DAYS IN L.A.

We didn’t really imagine we’d have an amazing time in L.A., and the price of accommodations was so expensive we didn’t even really want to stay there at all in the first place. But the city surprised us and surprised us well. Any misconception we had was debunked and we honestly can’t wait to go back!

There’s this strange feeling in the air in L.A., that made us feel somewhat content….

3 DAYS IN L.A. ACCOMMODATION: A GUESTHOUSE IN WEST HOLLYWOOD

After checking out the prices of hostels, Airbnb and Booking.com, we decided to stay at a guest house in West Hollywood. We hadn’t researched anything, but it seemed like it was accessible enough, and one of the cheapest options (150$/night, a nightmare……).

It turned out being a brilliant idea as the guest house was great, the host a very nice woman, and the location amazing. We were staying in a calm part of town, but very close to Sunset Boulevard and the Hollywood Walk of Fame, which was the perfect deal for us. The only thing is that is was a bit far from the beaches, but we’ll come to that a bit later.

Welcome to Hollywood

Even if you are not a « star system » geek, walking through the Hollywood Walk of Fame makes you one. Your eyes get full of stars – literally and figuratively – while you try (and fail) to take in everything there is to see. There’s stuff everywhere: lights, colors, people…

But it’s not chaos, because the streets are wide and the sky is clear and people are smiling.

There’s always something happening and you feel like you’re in a movie. If you are lucky you might even end up watching the ceremony of some stars putting « his hands » on the ground, actually that day it was Darryl Hall‘s turn from the duo Hall and Oats. I mean come on! even if you were born after the 90’s (right Alice?) you heard at list one song from this 60 million record selling duo!

3 days in L.A.: eating on Sunset Boulevard

We walked on Sunset Boulevard a lot, and found there our favorite two places to eat at.

Quick lunch break: Javista

The Javista Organic Café is perfect for a quick lunch break. We had great avocados and vegan sandwiches.

Amazing Thai Food: Toi on Sunset

Toi on Sunset is a very Rock&Roll Thaï place where we went twice because it was that good!

What to do in 3 days in L.A.

Be a University geek and check out UCLA

With the pictures you see first on Google while researching the university, we didn’t think UCLA would make it to our Top 7. Boy were we wrong! UCLA has a gorgeous campus and it proved very hard to prevent Alice from staying there, where she was running from building to building, declaring here and there « home! »… How can someone not want to study over there?

On the way – with the bus – we passed along Beverly Hills but we didn’t have the time to check out the neighbourhood for real. Guess now we have to go back to L.A.!

go drink at a legendary bar

We went to a historical bar that Simone absolutely wanted to check out: Power House. There were several bars he wanted to go to, but as he was starting to feel sick and we wanted to be able to see the sea the next day, so we decided on Power House.

We didn’t regret our decision for one second as it was a great place with amazing atmosphere and cool music. This time it’s Simone who was really hard to remove from the place, as he was repeating « I want to work here » again and again…

On this aspect, he has a message for the owner of the place:

“I am probably and without any doubt the best candidate to work in a bar like this! so please recruiters HIRE ME! »

Now that that’s being said… on our way back home we saw something that probably only happens in Los Angeles:

A very drunk Batman walking at night, talking to himself…

Santa Monica and Venice Beach

For our last day we decided to go to the beach and check out the famous Santa Monica and Venice beaches.

What can we say about about it? Although it was a long bus ride (but that way we saw pretty much all of Sunset Boulevard!!) we both really enjoyed the beach life vibe it gave us. It’s exactly as you see in the t.v shows!

Both beaches are totally different, though. Santa Monica is a bit more sophisticated, with lots of shops around and people wearing clothes (in the street, not on the beach, come on!).

Venice Beach is totally hippie, with people having parties, doing sports, showing off, playing music…

The way back to the guest house from Venice beach was pretty tough, though…. We had to take a couple buses with full-on air con for a total of 2hrs, which finished Simone off.
When we got home he had fever and there was no way he would do anything more or he would probably not have been fit enough to fly the next day. So he stayed in bed and we ordered in a delicious vegan pizza with fake cheese all over and looked at all the pictures we had taken and all the beautiful memories we had make during our 3 months honeymoon road trip in the US…

Keep the L.A. vibes going…

Listened to this famous intro from an L.A. band called The Doors :

Believe us, there are so many Wall Art around the town reminding you what band or singer was born and raised in L.A. that you do not need to go on Wikipedia!

Ughh I feel you. LA accommodations are crazy expensive! Even the crappier ones charge like luxury resort prices pre much. I was just there for a 3rd visit in December though. I gotta say I too didn’t expect to like LA so much but what do you know!